CinderBeast
by orangeyhairedimmortal
Summary: After the Machine Wars, the world is divided into those who approve and those who do not. The town where Ashton Puttel lives accepts machines but look down on the ones who work on them. The next town over completely abhors them, making Ashton have to deliver goods by cart. He delivers to a castle rumored to harbor a beast but Ashton only knows the girl in the shadows. Genderswap


**this is a gender swap story. and the original cinderella was called 'aschenputtel' or 'ash fool' as will be explained. and the characters are all there but are not themselves exactly**

* * *

All my life I've been stuck doing the dirty work. "Ash, do the dishes." "Ash, clean out the chimney." "Ash, wash the horses." "Ash, muck out the hay." Ash, Ash, Ash… Never a please or thank you or any type of gesture to show that they appreciate what I do for them. Some tell me just to leave and fend for myself but I can't just do that.

See, my father died when I was five in the Machine Wars that broke out all over the world. Society has been fighting with the advances of technology. All countries are scattered with those who believe that machines are the next way of living and those who prefer the archaic and hands-on work that they can have appreciation for. There is no cohesion of the two, for one town may be in alliance with machines and just a town over, they are in the past. It's very confusing on how tolerant others are and aren't of the metal that moves. I personally don't see such a big deal, but others find them overtaking and scary.

Anyway, my father was killed in the war and he was a baron. Well, my mother and I had to fend for ourselves until she met an earl by the name of Lars Puttel. Lars Puttel was a very large man in both girth and height and Mother married him because he also had two boys of his own, Dierk and Boris. She thought that having brothers would help with my loneliness. I wasn't lonely but getting two brothers wasn't a bad thing. It would be nice to have the company but I liked playing with my mechanics all by myself. We moved in with the earl and everything was bliss until the plague broke out.

The earl had a huge mansion that was on a lot of land. There were stables and plenty of grass covered lands to ride the horses on and also to try out a lot of the _Metallbewegungs_ that were around. The most common of the _Metallbewegungs_ (or 'moving metal') was the _Flugkorper_, a small flying machine that was like a flying bicycle. You pedaled it up into the air and flipped the switch to let the small superfast wings let you hover in the air above the ground. My mother had one and I liked to work on it, so she let me play around with it, working on it to get it to go faster and higher. My mother would cheer and clap at my advancements… and then she got sick. She caught the plague that was spreading throughout the lands and had to be put into quarantine.

No one could touch her or do anything with her, even talk to her face to face. So I sent in _eingereidt bugs_ with messages recorded on them to talk with her. She would record something back and that's how we would converse, recorded voice to recorded voice day after day in the quarantine room in the bottom of the mansion. Every day, though, the welts that she got from the disease made her joints hurt and soon she could not longer move very much. She eventually died, boils all over her body and red like she had been set on fire. It was hard to know she was gone…

But that wasn't the worst of my problems. Ironically enough, Mr. Puttel loved my mother and when she died, he lost his mind a little. He took to drinking a lot and kind of forgot about me. Not in a sense that he didn't remember me at all but more like he didn't acknowledge me until he absolutely needed me. He often called me names but his favorite and more angering of names was Ashton. He renamed me Ashton because when he said my name fast -Ashton and his last name Puttel- it sounded like _Aschenputtel_, which means 'ash fool'. I thought it was just a onetime event, but I found out that as my legal guardian, he can do things. Without my knowledge, he had legally changed my name to Ashton.

It would be nice to say that even though Lars called me Ashton now and because my mother was dead, I had two nice brothers who were kind to me and were there for me. Yeah, that would be too convenient. Boris and Dierk were about three years older than me already and were already attracting women. Boris was definitely a lady's man, since he liked to lift weights and do some other sports that our town allowed in regards to mechanics. He was very tall, about six seven, and had wavy black hair. He had blue eyes that were crystal and were the talk of all the girls around the town. He was very buff but that's all that was big about him. He was dumb as rocks.

Dierk, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of Boris. He was tall, like Boris, but was very lithe and spindly. He wasn't as muscular as Boris was but his was very intelligent. He knew how to do lots of things and he used his intelligence to make women fall in love with him. Books, facts, and other things he knew that even I was surprised at for a while. His intelligence was high but his common sense was a little lacking. In essence, a dumbass as well.

I, on the other hand, became very, very good at mechanics and fixed machines and little things all around town. I also was a delivery boy to the nearby towns early in the morning so that I could have money for parts to fix up my mother's _Flugkorper_ and do the chores of the house and be the props to Boris and Dierk's escapades with women. Being their prop usually consisted of me demonstrating Boris' strength and Dierk's intelligence by facts up the wazoo that made me delirious with confusion. Or something. I usually acted everything out with dramatics so that it would shine on them. I didn't really care because helping them get women exempted me from chores.

"Ashton!" Dierk yelled from the door of the garage.

I was working on something and jumped at his sudden appearance, whacking my head on the bottom of the machine. I growled at the pain but rolled out from under the machine and looked at Dierk with a low look.

"What?" I growled.

He held up two shirts. "Did you wash these?"

"Obviously. They're on the hangers…"

"I didn't ask what they were on, I asked if you washed them." He snapped, his hazel eyes glaring.

"I'm sure they are since they are _on the hangers_." See? This is that common sense thing I was talking about earlier.

"Are you sure or not? It's not that complicated."

I made a face at him and realized what he wanted me to do.

"Do you want me to smell them?" I grumbled.

"Yes."

I huffed, getting up and walking over to him. I sniffed the shirts and shrugged.

"They're clean."

"Smell them again and tell me _what_ they smell like?"

I sniffed the shirts again. "Lavender-"

"LAVENDER!" He threw the shirts on the dirty oil and dusty covered floor. "How am I supposed to impress women when I smell like a woman myself?! I can't do anything smelling like a damned _flower_!"

"Well at least you wouldn't have to spend money on a bouquet." I said, looking at him with a smile.

His top lip twitched and he pointed his finger at me.

"Don't wash my clothes with your faggoty scents, Ashton Puttel. It's a disgrace enough that you're around, no need to bring the rest of us down with you."

He stomped away and I clenched my fists.

"How many times do I have to say that I'm _not gay_?!" I yelled to the air.

Dierk and Boris have this funny notion in their heads that I don't like women because I don't express an interest in them and they don't express an interest in me. The fact is, women don't express interest in me at all, bypassing me always to get to Boris or Dierk. What's the point of trying to stand out when those two outrank me in nobility as well as looks and charm? So, I keep to myself and work on my machines, waiting for a girl who appreciates the things that I do.

In that, I ignored shirts that were on the dirty floor and went back to working on what I was doing. I rolled under it and picked up a ratchet to work on it when I felt myself being pulled out from under it and found myself dangling from my ankle.

"Ashton."

"Boris. Hello."

"My trophies need to be polished again. I'm bringing some girls over and I want to show them off… You're working on this stuff again? You need to get your head out of the engines and into the clouds."

"You got that wrong."

"I don't care!" He dropped me and I hissed at the pain of falling on my head. I'm surprised I'm not brain damaged. "Now get my trophies and polish them!"

"You do realize that polishing them all the time just makes them dull faster?"

"I don't need your smart remarks, Fruit Pie. Just do my things."

I just sighed as he walked away. I'm not gay…

I walked into the mansion and into the dining area where Boris had laid out all of his trophies and sighed, sitting down and grabbing the polish. It wasn't really polish but an empty bottle that I filled with dyed water to make it look like I was polishing his trophies. See, he asked me to do this very often and the bottle clearly states that if it is used in excess, it will strip the trophies. So, I poured it out and acted like I was polishing things so I wouldn't get yelled at and/or accused of ruining his precious trophies.

"And here we have the dining room where I mix my shakes and get all my nutrition for my muscles." I heard Boris say from the other room.

"Oooh." Some stupid girl said.

"Wow, really?" the other said.

I rolled my eyes as they came into view his 'surroundings'. The two girls gave me disapproving looks as Boris frowned.

"Who's the _FettAffe_?" one of them asked with a turn of her nose to me.

The other girl giggled and Boris rolled his eyes.

"That's just the butler-maid."

"The 'butler-maid'?"

"He does both jobs but it's also because he's a little… ya know…" he said, making a gesture.

I chucked one of his trophies at him and it hit him in the head. He yelled and looked at me with an angry glare.

"Oh. It slipped."

"What a boorish guy… Why is he all dirty like that?"

"He works on machines."

"Oh. He's one of _those_ people. A um… what are they called? Get something…"

"_Getriebekoft_." I said.

"Yeah, that. How tacky."

"Well, princess, your _Metallbewegungs_ wouldn't move without us. A little appreciation would be nice-"

"Yeah, yeah, completely boring!" Boris yelled. He turned back to the girls. "He cleans the house and stuff so he's not a complete waste."

"If you say so…"

"Show us your weight room!"

Boris wrapped his arms around the two girls and led them away. I sighed and put my face in my hands, my dark brown hair coming out of its ponytail. I smelled horrible. I got up to go get a shower, turning to get a towel.

"ASHTON PUTTEL!" Dierk yelled from upstairs.

I sighed and turned back around, heading up the stairs.

* * *

**he's not gay. he's totally straight**


End file.
